Brothers
by silvermoongirl10
Summary: Esposito looking after Ryan when Ryan is injured while taking a suspect. Please R


Ryan and Esposito had gone to get a suspect, Drew Harper, and had been told to wear their vests as Harper had a reputation of shooting at anyone. They had knocked on Harper's apartment door, (Ryan and Esposito had been relieved he lived on the first floor as that meant less stairs to go up) there had been no answer so Esposito kicked the door open and they entered and began to clear the apartment. Ryan went towards the back of the apartment; he saw a flash of movement from the corner of his eye, he turned and saw Harper with a gun drawn sneaking up behind Esposito and aiming his gun. Ryan knew he needed to act fast as he couldn't allow Harper to shoot Esposito, so he did the only thing that came to mind.

"Drop your weapon Harper and get on the floor!" called out Ryan successfully gaining Harper's attention, Esposito spun around in shock not realizing Harper had been sneaking up behind him with a gun.

Unfortunately for Ryan he had called out just as Harper was about to pull the trigger, so when Ryan called out to him Harper spun around to face him also swinging his arm and firing the gun, hitting Ryan in the chest, thank goodness they listened to the advice and wore their vests. However, the force of the bullet hitting him in such close range caused Ryan to fall back out the window, which he had been standing in front of. Ryan heard the breaking of the glass and felt himself fall through the window and heard the whooshing of air as he fell from the first floor, he also heard Esposito yelling his name. The next thing he knew he heard a crack as his head connected to the concrete of the parking lot and felt a surging pain shoot through his head and then fell into the engulfing darkness.

#######

Esposito was clearing the front of the apartment, whenever a building or apartment needed to be cleared he went to check out the front when Ryan checked out the back, it was just something that happened automatically. He heard the familiar footfalls of Ryan as he moved around the back of the apartment, he heard Ryan's step falter and figured he may have found something.

The next thing he knew he heard Ryan call out "Drop your weapon Harper and get on the floor!" Esposito spun around and saw Ryan had his gun pointed at Harper and Harper had been sneaking up behind him! How did he not notice that? His heart then went to his mouth when he saw Harper swing his arm around and fire the gun he had in his hand. Esposito could only watch as the bullet hit Ryan's chest forcing him to stumble back, but he was standing right in front of the window and ended up crashing through it.

"RYAN!" yelled Esposito as he ran towards the window and Harper, he tackled Harper to the ground, taking his gun and handcuffing him to a water pipe. Esposito then continued onto the window Ryan had disappeared through. As he looked out the window Esposito cried out in fear, Ryan was lying sprawled out on his side with glass scattered around him and on him, but what scared Esposito the most was that Ryan wasn't moving. Esposito looked around for a fast way to get to Ryan and noticed that the window next to where he was led to a fire escape, he opened the window and ignoring Harper's protests of leaving him there began to descend the fire escape. Esposito thought if only Ryan had been standing two metres to his left he would have gone through a window that didn't lead to a fifteen feet drop.

When Esposito got to the parking lot he ran the couple of metres over to Ryan and began to assess his partner's situation. He radioed for someone to collect Harper and an ambulance, he knelt by Ryan's head and saw a small pool of blood, he then did something he had hoped he would never have to do, he checked Ryan's pulse, he had never wanted to be in a situation where he'd have to check if his partner was still alive. He was relieved to feel Ryan's steady pulse.

"Ryan? Can you hear me Ryan?" there was no response, so Esposito leant over and took one of Ryan's hands and said "if you can hear me Ryan squeeze my hand" again there was no response. Ryan then began to groan and shift and Esposito didn't know if he had hurt his spinal cord in the fall and so couldn't allow Ryan to move, so he moved both his hands to either side of Ryan's face to keep his neck still.

########

Ryan felt himself slowly coming back into consciousness; while he had been unconscious he had been blissfully unaware of the pain he would be feeling. Now his head hurt like a ton of bricks had hit it, his chest felt tight and really hurt.

"Esposito?" groaned Ryan,

Esposito then leant over to he could be in Ryan's line of sight, "you ok Ryan?"

"What do you think?" said Ryan, then he hissed in pain when he found talking normally really hurt his head because it felt like his hearing had become very sensitive. "Oh no" murmured Ryan,

"What's wrong bro?" asked Esposito,

"I think I've got a concussion"

"How do you know?"

"I've had one before and let me tell you that was very unpleasant but I think this one is going to be much worse" groaned Ryan as his eyes began to slide shut,

"Well if you have got a concussion you know you've gotta stay awake" said Esposito,

"Uhhh"

"Come on Ryan, what are your plans for the weekend with Jenny?"

"Dunno"

"Come on, I know you've planned something you always do"

"Well I don't remember and it hurts when I think"

Esposito felt very sorry for Ryan, normally Ryan never complained if he was hurt or ill, but if he was just point blank telling Esposito it hurt then Esposito knew it must be really bad! Esposito was thankful to notice that the pool of blood didn't seem to be growing any bigger. He noticed Ryan was shutting his eyes again.

"Come on Ryan keep your eyes open"

"But M'tired Javi" complained Ryan,

"No buts Kevin, you're staying awake until a Doctor says you can sleep"

"Bossy" stated Ryan as he looked up at Esposito, and felt that small movement caused even more pain,

"Stay still Kev"

"Javi?"

"Yeah"

"Why are you holding my head?"

"To make sure your spinal cord hasn't been damaged"

Before Ryan could say anything sirens could be heard announcing the arrival of the ambulance and Beckett and Castle to take away Harper. Ryan flinched at the sounds which did not help his headache one bit.

At Esposito's questioning glance Ryan responded "sirens, making my headache worse" Esposito could only nod in sympathy as there was nothing he could do.

Beckett dashed out of her squad car and ran over to Esposito; she was worried because she could only see Esposito kneeling by Ryan, blocking her view of Ryan so she had no idea if Ryan was awake. Esposito looked over at her and said "he's ok-"

"I'm not ok!" protested Ryan, Beckett smiled when she heard Ryan, but felt sorry when she saw Ryan flinch from raising his own voice.

"What hurts Ryan?" asked Beckett,

"My head and my chest the most and my back hurts a bit" Beckett saw Esposito frown worriedly when Ryan said his back hurt. The EMT's then came over, Esposito told Beckett where Harper was and Beckett said Esposito could go with Ryan to the hospital and she would have someone come and get their squad car.

#######

Esposito had called Jenny and told her what had happened, she was out of town visiting her sick mother and wanted to come back but Esposito had told her that he would look after Ryan and that Ryan would want her to stay with her mother, so Jenny had agreed but asked Esposito if he would call her every night and tell her how Ryan was, and Esposito agreed with no hesitation.

Waiting for the Doctor to finish examining Ryan Esposito reflected on what happened and felt guilty, Ryan had only been shot and gone through the window to protect him from being shot.

The Doctor then walked over and said "Detective Ryan can only go home if someone is there to look after him for the next couple of days"

"His wife is out of town but I'll be staying with him"

The Doctor nodded and had Esposito sign Ryan's discharge forms, Ryan had been very lucky, by wearing a Kevlar and the shock from being shot had made his muscles relax which meant when he hit the floor he hadn't tensed up so he hadn't been as hurt as he could have been.

As Esposito walked into the room his guilt tripled, Ryan had a bandage around his head and although he was wearing a top Esposito knew Ryan's ribs had been wrapped because being shot at close range even wearing a vest had caused a few cracked ribs for Ryan. Ryan also had bandages around both arms from the glass cutting him and he also had a few small scratches on his face.

"Come on Ryan I'm taking you home and then I've gotta stay with you for a couple of days"

"Oh good! I didn't want to stay here" Ryan then gingerly sat up on the bed, but just as he was about to stand up he put his head in his hands,

"What's wrong Kev?" asked Esposito as he knelt in front of Ryan,

"I sat up to fast and it caused my headache to come back with a vengeance"

"Do you want to rest here a bit longer?"

Ryan peered over his hands at Esposito and whispered "no I just wanna go home"

"Come on bro" and Esposito helped Ryan to stand, Esposito saw Ryan was swaying on his feet so he put his arm around Ryan's shoulders to keep him from swaying.

######

They eventually made it back to Ryan's apartment; Esposito helped Ryan to his bedroom. He then went to get Ryan's painkillers and when he came back into the room Ryan was lying on his bed with his arm over his eyes.

"You awake Kev?"

"Yeah"

"I've got your painkillers"

"Uh huh"

"Don't you want them?" asked Esposito confused as he sat at the foot of Ryan's bed,

"Yeah but I don't want to move"

Esposito sighed and said "I'm sorry Kev"

Ryan moved his arm and looked at Esposito and asked "what for?"

"It's my fault your hurt"

"No its not! Its Harper's fault and he's on his way to jail" protested Ryan,

"But I should have heard him moving around!"

Ryan slowly sat up and leant against the headboard "Javi even I didn't hear him!"

"Well how come you knew he was there?"

"I saw movement from the corner of my eye and I saw him coming up behind you"

"Still my fault your hurt"

"Javi I would rather be hurt like this than you being shot and possibly killed by Harper, what kind of a partner would I be if I let you get shot?"

Esposito was about reply when he saw Ryan lean his head against the wall and closed his eyes, "you ok?"

"Just peachy" stated Ryan,

"What hurts?"

"Well my head hurts the most"

"Well as you're sat up you can take your pills"

"Oh so as I said I didn't want to move you decided to blame yourself about what happened to make me sit up and argue"

"Of course that was my plan, now take your pills"

Ryan just gently shook his head smiling, but he still took the pills.

######

Later that night when Esposito was about to go to bed in the guest room he went and checked on Ryan. He smiled when he saw the peaceful look on the younger Detective's face, as he was about to back out of the room Ryan stirred and looked up.

"Javi?"

"Yeah"

"I was wondering why you blamed yourself for me getting hurt"

"Because you're my partner who is like a brother and you always seem to look out for me and get hurt for it" Esposito saw Ryan yawn and added "get some sleep and don't worry about work we've got the next two days off"

"G'night Javi" yawned Ryan,

"Goodnight Kev"

Esposito was glad that in a couple of days Ryan would be better and they would go back to being the dynamic duo and if anyone tried to mess with one of them, well more fool then. Harper was lucky Esposito was concentrating on Ryan who was unconscious and Harper was also lucky he was in holding once Ryan was better, nobody messed with them. They were brothers and if someone was to hurt one of them, and that would make them pretty stupid.


End file.
